Dale, Sir Henry Hallett  (1875-1968)

British physiologist who in 1936 shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Otto Loewi for proving that chemical substances are involved in the transmission of nerve impulses. Dale was born in London and studied at Cambridge; St Bartholomew's Hospital, London; University College, London; and Frankfurt, Germany. He was director of the Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories 1906-14; worked at the Medical Research Council 1914-28, and was director of the National Institute for Medical Research 1928-42. In 1910, investigating the chemical composition and effects of ergot (a fungus that infects cereals and other grasses), Dale identified the substance now known as histamine. In 1914 he isolated acetylcholine from biological material. With Loewi, he later showed it to be produced at the nerve endings of parasympathetic nerves.